1. Field of Disclosure
The disclosure relates to the field of video data distribution systems and more specifically to systems and methods for providing verification of software-based conditional access to content.
2. Description of Related Art
Content providers deliver content via broadcasts to a number of users and/or deliver content via on-demand processing based on requests received and content availability. Content providers who have not negotiated broadcast rights for specific programming in certain geographical regions are obligated to restrict access or blackout the content in particular geographical areas. Content providers commonly provide alternative or substituted content that may be shown in areas where the primary content has been blacked out. A content provider typically encrypts and multiplexes the primary and alternative content in channels for transmission to various cable head ends. These signals are de-multiplexed and transmitted to integrated receiver decoders (IRDs) which decrypt the content.
In some conventional systems, a control stream indicates which virtual channels are broadcast to different geographic areas. There is typically one IRD per channel (or group of similar channels) for each geographic area. The content providers typically have a mapping of the unique identifier of each IRD within the service provider's network to the serving area for each of the IRDs. The content provider creates virtual networks or groups of IRDs based on the IRD serving areas. The IRDs decrypt the signals and prepare the output streams, while simultaneously using the virtual network and virtual channel indicators in the control stream to distribute the output stream. In some typical systems, during a blackout, the IRDs switch from one virtual channel to another based on retune messages from the content provider. This causes a simultaneous substitution of content on a specific channel. Note that each cable head end is statically assigned to serve a geographic region, with the IRDs dedicated to each cable head end.
In many conventional systems, blackout areas are defined on a channel by channel basis, and are also defined by specifying a particular IRD. Thus customers served with content that is received by the IRD will receive alternative or substituted content.